Crowd based bonus and promotional system and method

ABSTRACT

A bonus and/or promotion system, such as for a casino or other retail location, includes one or more sensors for detecting the presence of one or more persons at a location and a bonus or promotion generator configured to generate and output bonuses or promotions based upon detected levels of persons in an area. The bonus or promotion generator may provide an output to existing audio and/or visual display devices of the location for announcing bonuses or promotions.

RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/345,290, filed Nov. 7, 2016, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/882,186, filed Oct. 13, 2015, now U.S. Pat. No.9,524,613, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/904,235, filed May 29, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,189,920, which is acontinuation of and claims priority to PCT/US2011/001976, filed Dec. 12,2011, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/423,494, filed Dec. 15, 2010. The present application incorporateseach of said prior applications herein in their entirety by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to consumer based bonusing andpromotions and in particular to casino based bonusing and promotions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Bonuses or promotions have long been used to increase consumer interestin retail products or services, or to attract consumers to particularretail locations. Very often bonuses and promotions are directly tied toan affinity card in order to establish some criteria to award the bonusor generate the promotion. However, the use of these cards has numerousdrawbacks. Among other things, many consumers or gamblers do not wish toutilize such cards. In that event, however, the casino or retailer doesnot have an effective means for including the person in a bonusing orpromotion program.

From the discussion that follows, it will become apparent that thepresent invention addresses the deficiencies associated with the priorart while providing numerous additional advantages and benefits notcontemplated or possible with prior art constructions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The system and method of the present invention generates bonuses and/orpromotions based on a detected presence of at least one person in atleast one location.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a system forgenerating a bonus or a promotion in which a detected presence of atleast one person in a designated location is sent over a firstcommunication link to a system server, and the system server generatesthe bonus or promotion information from the detected presence of atleast one person in the designated location. The bonus or promotioninformation may be sent from the system server to at least one existingsystem over a second communication link.

According to another aspect of the invention a system rules engine maybe integrated with the existing system in order to send the bonus andpromotional information to specific locations and/or players (such asspecific players, groups of players or players located within certaingeographic regions or locations) within the casino or retailestablishment or outside the casino or retail establishment using anynumber of communication technologies such as cellular, phone, cable, andsatellite.

In accordance with one embodiment of a system, the system comprises apeople counting module which is connected to one or more sensors inorder to compile real-time people tracking information. These sensorsare configured to detect the presence of people in an area and mayinclude: thermal sensors, wireless beams, directional wireless beams,proximity sensors, heat sensors, RFID sensors, or other availablesensors which can detect a person.

The sensors may be located anywhere within the retail or casinoestablishment and may include a plurality of characteristics such asoverhead people detection, directional people counting, integratedwireless and wireless repeaters, battery or AC powered, variable widthdetection, outdoor people detection, local count display, and othercharacteristics which facilitate the detection and collection of peoplewithin a specific physical area such as a casino, retail location andthe like.

According to another aspect of the present invention, raw peopledetection information is compiled from a network of sensors within aspecific location in order to determine the numbers of people withinspecific areas of the location. The information is further communicatedto existing retail or gaming systems either in compiled form or theinformation is sent to the systems rules engine where specific bonusesand promotions may be communicated via the local systems to kiosks,gaming machines, displays, PA systems, ticket redemption machines, andother existing hardware devices connected to the internal establishmentsystems.

According to another aspect of the present invention, specific bonusesand promotions are set up by the operator using the system to be routedto specific systems within the establishment based on the criteria setwithin the systems rules engine.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises communicating raw, compiled or processed people countinformation to local systems to facilitate the process of patronbonusing and promotions.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises: (1) collecting a real-time count of people within one or morelocations; (2) compiling people count information; (3) using a rulesengine to determine bonuses, promotions, locations, systems, and/orplayers; and (4) routing output of rules engine to existing systemswithin the casino or retail location.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises generating bonuses and promotions based on people countinformation.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises: (1) counting people; (2) determining bonus and promotiontriggers; (3) executing one or more bonuses or promotions based ontriggers; and (4) communicating with existing systems to award bonusesand promotions.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises progressive bonuses and promotions based on the number ofpeople within one or more locations within a retail or casino location.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises progressive bonuses and promotions funded by contributionsmade by people within one or more locations within a retail or casinolocation.

Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will beor will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination ofthe following figures and detailed description. It is intended that allsuch additional systems, methods, features and advantages be includedwithin this description, be within the scope of the invention, and beprotected by the accompanying claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasisinstead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.In the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the different views.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a gaming system for awarding payouts andprizes, the system being modifiable to include people counting and rulesengine as proves necessary for implementing the various embodiments ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a one or more sensors and sensor typeswithin a location connected to one or more data collection controllersfor the collection of raw people counting data.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of Rules Engine inputs and output to one ormore systems, interfaces or the like.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of application embodiments comprising types ofretail locations.

FIG. 5 is a schematic of a casino floor broken into a grid of locationquadrants.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the described system.

FIG. 7 is an example of a bonus and promotion configuration file storedon and used by described system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a more thorough description of the present invention.It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that thepresent invention may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known features have not been described in detailso as not to obscure the invention.

In general, the invention comprises a bonusing and/or promotion systemand method of generating or awarding bonuses and/or promotions. Inaccordance with the invention, information is collected regarding thenumber of people at a particular location, such as a retailestablishment, or at various areas within such a location. Suchinformation is referred to herein as person detection, crowd or personcount, but may be referred to by other terminology. The collected crowdor person count information is used to generate and output bonus and/orpromotion events and information, such as by inputting count informationto a bonus and/or promotion system's rules engine, which engine providesan output to one or more output devices.

In one embodiment, the bonusing and/or promotion system and method arehave particular utility to, and are particularly adapted for use at, acasino location. Such a location may include one or more gaming tables,gaming machines and/or gaming systems at which people may playcasino-style games such as slot-type games, table games (such asblackjack, poker, roulette, craps or the like), and/or other games suchas, keno, bingo, and the like. Such games are generally played for awager and offer the opportunity for winnings. The casino gaming locationmay additionally include facilities such as a buffet, restaurants,shops, night clubs, entertainment venues, movie theatres, etc., as wellas other associated facilities such as rooms/lodging, a pool, spa or thelike.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram which illustrates one embodiment of a systemof the invention. As illustrated, the invention comprises a main system600 (such as the people traffic system 110 described below relative tothe casino embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1) which may comprise a serveror an application controller system, a user interface 610 to such asystem (such as one or more kiosks, computers or the like, such ashaving displays and keyboards), a database 620 (such as containing bonusor promotion configuration data as described below relative to FIG. 7),a network 630, an interface to a sensor network 640 (such as the sensornetwork illustrated in FIG. 2 and described below), an interface toexisting systems 650 (such as the people traffic system 110 describedbelow relative to the casino embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1), a wiredcommunication interface 660, and a wireless communications interface670, the function of which elements are further described.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of the invention as applied to acasino environment. As illustrated, a gaming system for awarding payoutsand prizes exists in a casino. Existing systems of the casino arepreferably adapted to include an interface 100 to a people trafficsystem 110 of the invention. The people traffic system 110 preferablycomprises: (1) a sensor system 130 for sensing the presence of people inone or more areas; and (2) a rules engine 120 for implementing thevarious embodiments of the present invention. The rules engine 120preferably comprises a means for generating bonus or promotioninformation. Such means may comprise a controller, such as a server orother computing device, which executes instructions or “rules” basedupon provided data. As indicated below, a variety of information,including criteria regarding various bonuses or promotions, may bestored in a database. Data or inputs provided to the rules engine 120preferably include information regarding a “person count” or thedetected presence of one or more persons in a particular location.

In the casino location embodiment of the invention, the people trafficsystem 110 integrates with various output devices, thus permitting bonusand/or promotion information to be provided to people in the casino.Such output devices may comprise, for example, existing displays 140 andexisting kiosks 150 in the casino location. The system 100 may alsointerface with existing customer databases 160, such as those which arewell known as databases associated with existing customer loyaltysystems of casinos. The people traffic system 110 may interface withthese various devices, databases and the like by one or more systeminterfaces 100.

According to another aspect of the invention the system rules engine 120is integrated with existing system interfaces 100 in order to outputbonus and/or promotional information based on the number of peoplewithin a casino or within specific locations of the casino (such astargeted quadrants within the casino or outside the casino) via displays140, kiosks 150, or other devices configured to provide a visual and/oraudible output. Such interfaces 100 may include a communicationinterface, whereby the system 110 may communicate with such otherdevices using any number of communication technologies and by any numberof communication links, such as cellular, phone, cable, and satellite.

In another embodiment adapted to a casino location, bonus and/orpromotional information is output from the people traffic system 110 toexisting casino customer contact systems 160 and/or databases 180 fortargeting to one or more customers. Such customers may include at leastone or more specific customers, groups of customers or customers locatedin specific geographic regions or locations, such as for enticing thosecustomers to visit targeted quadrants within the casino location, andwherein customers may include casino game players, buffet customers,bingo players, keno players, table game players, theatre customer,entertainment customers, and the like wherein the contact is made to theplayer via their email, cell phone, etc. and not specifically within viathe devices within the casino.

As indicated above, in one embodiment the invention includes a sensorsystem 130. Referring to FIG. 2, such a system comprises means forsensing or detecting persons at a location, and preferably means whichpermit or provide an identification or count of the number of persons ata location. The means may comprise one or more sensors of one or moresensor types within a location. Such a location may comprise a casino orother retail establishment, for example. In one embodiment, the sensorsare connected to one or more data collection controllers for thecollection of raw people counting data. In particular, as illustrated,people counting module controllers 200 of the described people trafficsystem 110 connect to one or more sensors 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, andother sensors adapted to detect the presence of one or more persons inorder to compile real-time people tracking information within a specificlocation and/or one or more areas within such a location, such as acasino.

In the preferred embodiment, the one or more sensors may comprise, butare not limited to one or more of the following types of sensors:thermal sensors 240, wireless beams 220, directional wireless beams 210,proximity sensors 250, RFID sensors 230, or other sensors now known orlater developed which are capable of being used to detect the presenceof at least one person in a location. The one or more sensors might alsocomprise cameras or other devices configured to capture information fromwhich a person count may be determined.

The one or more sensors may be located anywhere within the specificlocation, such as the described casino, and may include a plurality ofcharacteristics such as overhead people detection, directional peoplecounting, integrated wireless and wireless repeaters, battery or ACpowered, variable width detection, outdoor people detection, local countdisplay, and other characteristics which facilitate the detection andcollection of people within a specific physical area such as a casino,retail location and the like. It will be appreciated that a plurality ofsensors may be utilized in order to provide people detection over alarge area.

As indicated above, in one embodiment of the invention people countinformation may be obtained for various areas of a location. Forexample, according to one aspect of the present invention, a locationmay be organized in location quadrants, areas or zones (the areas mayhave designated shapes or be irregular in shape, have the same ordifferent sizes or the like). FIG. 5 illustrates a casino floor whichhas been organized into a grid 555 of location quadrants or areas 565.In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the people trafficsystem 110 collects raw people detection information, also known astraffic information, such as from a network of sensors 505, whereininformation from each sensor 505 or grouping of sensors within aspecific quadrant is collected and communicated over wire and/orwireless communications to a controller 500, a casino gaming system 585,or any combination thereof. The raw people count information iscollected by system 585 in order to determine the numbers of peoplewithin specific quadrants of the particular location, such as a casinolocation.

In one embodiment, the collected traffic information may comprise datapertaining or relating to the number of people within the range of thesensor(s), the rate of movement of people detected by the sensor(s), thestatus of people detected by the sensor(s) (such as moving, still,assembling, etc.), and other related data pertaining or relating to thenumbers, groups and movement of people detected by sensor(s) 505. Itwill be appreciated that the one or more sensors may simply provide araw output which is provided to main controller, which main controllerutilizes the raw output to generate person count information. Forexample, a reflectivity sensor might output an analog signal whereinhigh values represent high reflectivity, and thus presence of a person,while a low value represents low reflectivity. The controller mightanalyze that signal to determine the number of high values, and thus thenumber of detected persons, over a period of time. Alternatively, thesensors may include controllers or processors which manipulate thesensor outputs into information regarding a number of detected persons.

For example, in one embodiment, one or more sensors may collectinformation which identifies that five people are located on the casinofloor in quadrant D5 shown in FIG. 5. Once a determination has been madeas to the number of people within the given quadrant D5 (or set ofquadrants including D5), that information may be used to determinebonuses and/or promotions, including the type and nature thereof and towhom the bonuses and/or promotions may be directed. For example, acasino may desire to entice the people in quadrant D5 to move to atargeted quadrant, such as quadrant H5 566. In order to entice thepeople located in quadrant D5 to move to the targeted quadrant H5,information such as special promotions or bonuses may be directed to thepeople in quadrant D5. For example, a visual and audio promotionindicating the availability of two-for-one casino chips for all tablegames played within quadrant H5 566 for the next 30 minutes may berouted to one or more displays, speaker systems, gaming machines, gamingmachine displays, billboard displays, and/or is communicated as vocalannouncements within quadrant D5 565.

As another example, one or more sensors 505 associated within quadrantE5 567 may be used to detect how many people are presently in a buffet545. When the number of people reaches a predefined threshold, such as87 people, a promotion may then be directed to displays within thebuffet 545. Such a promotion may be used, for example, to entice peopleto play casino gaming machines 510 within quadrant B2 568.

The various types of bonuses and/or promotions which may be offered inaccordance with the invention may vary. The bonuses and/or promotionsmay offer free or reduced price goods or services, including free orreduced price game play. The various bonuses and/or promotions may beoffered in various combinations, including based upon particularlocations or areas. For example, any number of promotions may be offeredto people within specific quadrants or groups of quadrants, such astwo-for-one, fifty percent off, $5 cash back, free play, free buffet,etc. Any number of bonuses may be offered to people within specificquadrants or groups of quadrants for example $5 bonus for all aces, 10×pay for any royal flush, $100 bonus for first person to win a royalflush, lucky card bonus, etc.

The various bonuses and/or promotions may be used for various purposes.As indicated, the bonuses and/or promotions might be used to drive orentice people to move from one location or area to another. According toanother aspect of the present invention, detection of specific numbersof people may qualify the people in an area (such as a quadrant) for anynumber of bonuses, promotions or both.

FIG. 3 illustrates additional details of the rules engine 120illustrated in FIG. 2. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the rules engine mayaccept various inputs and use those inputs to generate various outputsto one or more existing systems, interfaces or the like. In oneembodiment, people or traffic information collected by traffic sensors310 is further communicated to existing retail or gaming system modules330 either in compiled form for processing by external systems, or thetraffic information is sent to the people traffic system rules engine300 where specific bonuses and promotions may be communicated viaexisting system interfaces 100 shown in FIG. 1 in order to sendpromotional and/or bonus information from the people traffic system tokiosks 150, gaming machines, displays 140, PA systems, ticket redemptionmachines, and other existing hardware devices connected to the internalestablishment systems.

According to another aspect of the present invention wherein the systemis associated with a casino location as shown in FIG. 3, specificbonuses and/or promotions are set up by the operator using the describedsystem to be routed to specific system modules 330 within the casinolocation based on the criteria set within the systems rules engine 300.

Such bonuses and promotions may be predefined using a software programwith a database interfaced to an existing system such as a casino gamingsystem and triggered in real-time when people sensors 505 detect aspecific number of people within one or more quadrants, as indicatedabove relative to FIG. 5.

As described earlier, the purpose of the bonuses and/or promotions maybe to move people from one quadrant or area to another quadrant or area.The purpose of said bonuses and/or promotions may be directed to peoplewithin a specific quadrant or area for any number of reasons based onthe desires of the casino or retail establishment. In one embodiment,traffic or people count information from two or more quadrants or areasmay be used to generate or trigger a bonus or promotion. For example, abonus or promotion may be generated when the system determines that theperson count in one quadrant reaches a predetermined high level when atthe same time a person count in another quadrant reaches a predeterminedlow level.

According to another aspect of the invention, a bonus and/or promotionmay be directed inversely to all quadrants or areas except for aspecific quadrant where people are located. For example, if a largenumber of people are determined to be loitering within quadrant H5 566watching table games, a promotion and/or bonus may be offered toquadrants around H5 566, but excluding H5 566, in order to entice somepersons in quadrant H5 566 to move to another quadrant.

Additional, for example, there may be a large number of players playing$1 table games. The casino may desire to drive those players to the $10dollar table games by offering a promotion using displays within aquadrant containing $1 table games of two-for-one play on all $10 tableswithin an adjacent quadrant.

According to another aspect of the invention shown in FIG. 6, theconfiguration of the sensors, bonuses, promotions, and relatedinformation is defined within a configuration file stored on a database620 associated with the people traffic system 600.

As indicated above relative to FIG. 1, a rules engine 120 may beutilized to generate various bonuses and/or promotions based uponvarious inputs, including person count information for one or moreareas. In one embodiment, the rules engine 120 may implement suchfeatures using one or more configurations files 700, one example ofwhich is illustrated in FIG. 7. As illustrated, the configuration file700 may comprise a table of bonuses or promotions and their associatedelements or criteria, such as: (1) “originating” quadrants 710 wheresensors detect the numbers of people; (2) the sensors 720 associatedwith that the originating quadrant 710; (3) one or more promotions 730and/or bonuses 740 to be output; (4) a description 750 of the bonusand/or promotion event; (5) the time 760 at which the bonus and/orpromotion is to be awarded or activated; (6) the duration or activationtime 770 of the bonus and/or promotion; and (7) the destination quadrant780 where the bonus and/or promotion is active.

In the configuration illustrated in FIG. 7, when the value of the“destination” quadrant 780 is none, the bonus and/or promotion may beawarded within the originating quadrant 710. It will be appreciated thatnumerous other data elements used to configure the system 600 may alsobe included within the system configuration file and the configurationfile may include additional external files and include references toexternal tables containing additional detailed information regardingbonuses, promotions, time, and the like associated with the peopletraffic system.

From FIG. 7 it will be appreciated that bonuses or promotions may varyover time, including based upon changes in the number of people incertain areas. For example, in the evening at a casino a large number ofpersons may be detected as playing table games in one area and thecasino may desire to entice some of those players to slot machines inanother area. On the other hand, in the afternoon a large number ofpersons may be detected as playing the slot machines and the casino maydesire to entice some of those players to the table games.

According to another aspect of the invention, the promotions and bonusesmay be time oriented whereby once they are triggered, the bonus orpromotion may exist or remain active for a predefined period of timewithin a particular quadrant of group of quadrants. The triggers andtiming may be pre-established to a desired configuration defined by theparameters stored within the system's database and executed by thesystem automatically when the system is operating.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises communicating raw, compiled or processed people countinformation to local systems to facilitate the process of patronbonusing and promotions.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises: (1) collecting a real-time count of people within one or morelocations; (2) compiling people count information; (3) using a rulesengine to determine bonuses, promotions, locations, systems, and/orplayers; and (4) routing output of rules engine to existing systemswithin the casino or retail location.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises generating bonuses and promotions based on people countinformation.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises: (1) counting people in a location or one or more areas of alocation; (2) determining bonus and promotion triggers; (3) executingone or more bonuses or promotions when such triggers are met; and (4)communicating with one or more systems (preferably existing systems) toaward bonuses and promotions.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises progressive bonuses and promotions based on the number ofpeople within one or more locations within a retail or casino location.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method furthercomprises progressive bonuses and promotions funded by contributionsmade by people within one or more locations within a retail or casinolocation.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the invention may be implemented in variouslocations, including various retail locations such as, but not limitedto, a casino location, a casino gaming floor, a retail shop, an indoormall, a super store, a carnival, an outdoor mall, a fun store video andother games, and other locations which offer products or services toconsumers.

Further, while various embodiments of the invention have been described,it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many moreembodiments and implementations are possible that are within the scopeof this invention. In addition, the various features, elements, andembodiments described herein may be claimed or combined in anycombination or arrangement.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for providing a bonus or a promotioncomprising: at least one sensor configured to detect the presence of atleast one person, said at least one sensor located in a designatedlocation and generating raw location data; a system server, said systemserver configured to generate bonus or promotion information; a firstcommunication link between said at least one sensor and said systemserver, at least a portion of said first communication link comprising awireless communication link, an output of said at least one sensorincluding said raw detection data being provided to said system servervia said first communication link; and at least one second communicationlink between said system server and at least one existing system at saidlocation, said system server being configured to generate the bonus orpromotion information and to transmit said bonus or promotioninformation and at least a portion of said raw detection data to the atleast one existing system over said at least one second communicationlink.
 2. The system in accordance with claim 1 wherein said systemserver comprises at least one database that defines one or more bonusesor promotions based upon a number of sensed persons sensed by said atleast one sensor.
 3. The system in accordance with claim 2 wherein saidnumber of sensed persons comprises a number of sensed persons above athreshold number.
 4. The system in accordance with claim 2 wherein saidnumber of sensed persons comprises a number of sensed persons below athreshold number.
 5. The system in accordance with claim 1 wherein saidat least one existing system comprises a system which includes at leastone video display.
 6. The system in accordance with claim 1 wherein saidat least one existing system comprises a gaming system comprising aplurality of gaming machines.
 7. The system in accordance with claim 1wherein said at least one existing system comprises a wirelesscommunication local area network.
 8. The system in accordance with claim1 wherein said at least one existing system comprises a wirelesscommunication wide area network.
 9. The system in accordance with claim1 wherein said at least one existing system comprises a wirelesscommunication connection to the Internet.
 10. A system for providing abonus or a promotion comprising: at least one sensor configured todetect the presence of at least one person, said at least one sensorlocated in a designated location and generating raw location data; afirst communication link configured to transmit an output of said atleast one sensor including said raw location data to a system server; atleast one existing system at said location; and at least one secondcommunication link between said system server and said at least oneexisting system, said system server being configured to transmit saidbonus or promotion information and at least a portion of said rawdetection data to the at least one existing system over said at leastone second communication link.
 11. The system in accordance with claim10 wherein said system server comprises at least one database thatdefines one or more bonuses or promotions based upon a number of sensedpersons sensed by said at least one sensor.
 12. The system in accordancewith claim 11 wherein said number of sensed persons comprises a numberof sensed persons above a threshold number.
 13. The system in accordancewith claim 11 wherein said number of sensed persons comprises a numberof sensed persons below a threshold number.
 14. The system in accordancewith claim 10 wherein said at least one existing system comprises asystem which includes at least one video display.
 15. The system inaccordance with claim 10 wherein said at least one existing systemcomprises a gaming system comprising a plurality of gaming machines. 16.The system in accordance with claim 10 wherein said at least oneexisting system comprises a wireless communication local area network.17. The system in accordance with claim 10 wherein said at least oneexisting system comprises a wireless communication wide area network.18. The system in accordance with claim 1 wherein said at least oneexisting system comprises a wireless communication connection to theInternet.